Feel better about your phone, connect it to The People’s Operator

Here’s something a little bit different. Today sees the launch of The People’s Operator, a new MVNO — that’s mobile virtual network operator, which means it doesn’t own a network, but uses one of the major UK operators — that promises to give a share of its profits to the charity.

It’s not a paltry amount either, as 25-percent of the company’s profits will go to a variety of great causes, including the NSPCC, Childline and more local charities too. Interestingly, you can have your own say in where the money goes, by directing The People’s Operator to give 10-percent of your monthly spend to your choice of charity.

So, an excellent idea all round, but how much does it cost? Well, the answer is both good and bad, as the standard tariff of 12.5p per minute, 7.5p per SMS and 12.5p per MB of data is cheaper than some of the competition, plus calls to other TPO subscribers are free too; but its bundles aren’t quite as well-priced.

It appears you order your SIM card for free, then add credit to your account before choosing a series of bundles depending on your requirements. For example, 100 minutes of calls per month costs £7.50, but it doesn’t come with any SMS or data, so you then need to add £2.25 for 100 SMS and £4.25 for 100MB of data. So, for £14, you’ve got a very basic PAYG phone plan.

If you want more, then you can pay up to a massive £40 per month for just 200 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data. Although it hasn’t been officially announced, several online sources say TPO will be using EE’s network, so coverage should be excellent.

The People’s Operator appears to make sense for infrequent, call or text only users, when it could be quite cost efficient. A series of monthly packages with phones will be introduced in the future too, but don’t expect them to be bargains.

All that said, at least some of the extra you pay will go to a good cause. If you would like to check The People’s Operator out, take a look at its website here.

About Andrew Boxall

Andy's fascination with mobile tech began in the 90s, at a time when SMS messages were considered cutting edge, but it would be at least a decade before he would put finger-to-keyboard as a freelance tech writer. In the interim he wrote about travel, formulated strong opinions about films and drove a series of audacious cars